Maqsood Ahmed and Mohammed Saghir, former owners of the Mamaz takeaway, have been ordered to pay £11,000 each as well as £410 costs and a £100 victim surcharge. The pair pleaded guilty to 11 food safety and hygiene charges at Dudley Magistrates’ Court.

During an inspection in August 2017, environmental health inspectors discovered numerous serious hygiene failings including; dirty kitchen equipment, a lack of hot water onsite, raw meat being stored above ready to eat foods in a fridge, floors and a ceiling that were defective and not capable of being cleaned, and a dead rat that was found floating in a bucket of waste oil.

Mamaz had previously been served with an improvement notice requiring hot water to be provided at the premises but the owners failed to comply with the notice.